lol… There is many subject on politics that I dont know about. I dont understand the systems behind a goverment but if you had any common sense whatsoever… Then you would know that most people can comment on what is right and wrong. If anybody has a basic understand of history they know about Goverment and Politics to some degree.

Dont accuse me of knowing more about politics then what I actually say…. Dude If I say I dont, Then I dont! But I do know what is right and wrong in the world. Therfor I can comment on what ever I want. If you have no ground to debate me on the topic at hand then dont get so low as to try to insult me personally.

You should stop posting unless you have something to say that is on topic. If not dont post at all. And your answer “A strong opinion on a subject one has a vague understanding or interest on”.. That is a opinion and not a fact so we can all dismiss that as a post from sombody that has as much ignorance as you.

There is no insulting other than you being defensive and putting words into other peoples mouths. As far as something on the topic, I’ve already addressed it, but you’ve seemed to completely avoided it and went straight to my questioning of your views. if anyone is making an issue of it, it is you.

for a person who says he’s not too into politics.. you already have strong opinions of Europe’s politics.

As for Iran wanting nukes.. the answer is simple. Once a country has them, opposing countries have shown more reluctance in dealing with them militarily. No one has really touched N.Korea even though they are probably the one state that everyone can agree, is run by some one idiotic and destructive. India and Pakistan have not had a large war since they declared nukes (just small skirmishes), etc.

The history of Iran also gives further impression on the need to justify nukes. Upon its very independence..it was under the influence of British interests, who controlled most of Iran’s oil industry, and to some extent its politics too. Like most newly independent countries, the Iranians wanted control of their own resources to use the revenues to build their country. When that happened, Mossadegh was gone, and the Shah re instated. Problem is, while the Shah was cooperative with the west, he sure did not like his people, and vice versa. You had an autocratic regime, lots of repression, secret police, etc. Unfortunately, people saw the West’s continued support of the Shah equating as the West continuing to support his methods. (however the west wasn’t totally ignorant of it.. Jimmy Carter pushed for more freedom and human rights in Iran, but given that oil is important and you need oil to drive an economy, there is only so much foreign nations can do). Due to that, it made some nut jobs like Khomeini become very popular, thus people going to the other extreme.

Most Iranians I talk to don’t really like Khomeini.. but most hate the Shah even more. The rise of a theocracy caused alarm in the west as they feared a theocratic movement could spread to the Monarchies in the Gulf, or to Secular Iraq.. which is why it seemed like everyone and his mother came to support Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war.. it wasn’t just a war between two nations..it was a war at preventing Iranian influence going outside of their borders. With this in mind, it further fueled the notion that the world is against Iran and the Iranian people. It didn’t help when the Iranian airliner got shot down either.

Over a decade later, you now have the Bush administration which is heavily influenced by Neoconservative foreign policies, which often are unilateral and aggressive as they often advocate the use of force and maintaining a unipolar world order. the Evil axis remark also didn’t help, and pretty much made Iran look like it was next in line after Iraq.. Thus in the view of many Iranians.. the world has went against them, and it seems sooner or later they will be invaded, so why NOT build a nuclear stockpile when the US is currently bogged down in Afghanistan and Iraq?

The sad thing is, had Mossadegh continued to govern Iran, we could’ve had a more liberal, modern government that would be more cooperative with the west and friendlier with Israel as Mossadegh gave many rights to Iranian Jews. I also don’t blame Israel for feeling the way they do since quite frankly, Iran has always been threatening them.

juging by the poor condition of the plane.this mig-29 probably wasn’t in flying shape for a very long time notice no wing or engine..probaly just a rich owners collector disply or toy!.

naturally the wings are removed to fit inside the storage container. Likewise many aircraft that go through cargo transports have wings removed.

I think you mean F-14 because iran doesn’t have F-15.

yeah typo.. 😛 although the Su-25 thing might be another typo too 😀

Tehran’s not, but Bushehr is. You can find an SA-5 site, a parked F-14, and an F-4 on final approach in Bushehr.

ah you mean these? it took a while to find, air base is bigger than i thought.. pretty empty too.

found some warships up in the north by the caspian too..

at least we know they have 1 F-4 flying :p

True.
I think intelligence service like CIA has possibilities (sattelites) to assess the level of activity on Iranian airfields. They probably will not publish the results. The published photos are indications and – if we speak of the same phote with Tomcat carrying AIM-54 – it is very poor evidence. The fly-by of several F-14s instead is clear prove that they still fly, however gives little clue about their ready state.

I think people who can judge best about the TOMCAT-issue are former US Navy people who had to do with the Tomcat. Maybe there is somebody around?

you know, I wonder if anyone here tried looking for some Iranian aircraft using google earth.. I recall Tehran at least, was in detail :dev2:

-From that period until now there was no major improvement in IRIAF inventory (except the famous twin-tail F 5); there are any double digit SAMs and only some Russian small range systems were recently been aquired, but probably not yet operational
.

actually, the acquisition of MiG-29s, Su-24s and Mirage F-1s are significant, as well as the industry being able to modernize and reproduce certain parts of existing aircrafts. It is better off now than it was in the 80s.